Improvement in processes for making oakum



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES It. BLANEY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO J OHNv R. MONALLY, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROCESSES FOR MAKING OAKUM.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 157,573, dated December 8, 1874; application filed November 24, 1874.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAS. R. BLANEY, of

v Chicago, (look county, Illinois, have invented an Improved Process of Making Oakum, of which the following is a specification:

In making oakum by my process I use hemp or flax tow, jute, or other similar fiber. Any one of these fibrous materials is saturated with a thin solution in benzine, kerosene, or other oil, as solvent of the finest asphaltum, (Trinidad preferred,) and of pine-tar.

These solutions are better made separate, and mixed.

After saturation, the fiber is pressed to remove the excess of the solution, dried, and carded to reduce it to the proper length and fineness.

These solutions contain from one and a half to two pounds of asphaltum to the gallon of the solvent, and about one-half that quantity of pine-tar per gallon of the solvent.

To recover the benzine, kerosene, or other solvent, I propose to dry the fiber, after pressing it, by distillation of the said solvent.

, The object of my invention is the preparation of a good quality of oakum from a byproduct cheaply, and furnish a supply at any time, which is becoming difficult, owing to the increasing scarcity of old rope, from which it is usually made.

I do not claim the special use of flax or hemp tow in the manufacture of oakum, for they to give to the fiber the requisite adhesiveness,

and the other properties of ordinary oakum, while oakum made by my process possesses not only the usual qualities of ordinary oakum made from old rope, but, additionally, the entire strength of new fiber, and the extra preservative property given it by the asphaltum.

I claim as my invention The process of making oakum from hemp or flax tow, jute, or similar fibers, by saturating such fiber in a solution of asphaltum and pinetar, using benzine, kerosene, or other oil as the solvent, and the recovery of said oil by distillation from the saturated fiber, substantially as specified.

JAS. R. BLANEY. Witnesses:

WALTER BUTLER, D. W. GRAVES. 

